Children of Chornobyl Canadian Fund Presents A Commemorative Concert, Photo Essay and Lecture

Marking The Silver Anniversary Of The Worldʼs Worst Nuclear Disaster.

TORONTO, April 12, 2011 — The explosions and subsequent meltdown of Reactor Number Four at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine 25 years ago, (a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale), set the unenviable benchmark for nuclear disasters. While many continue to debate the number of actual victims, contamination is a fact, as are the resulting serious social, psychological and vast economical losses which affect Ukraine to this day.

Toronto-based Children of Chornobyl Canadian Fund (CCCF) begins its commemoration of this solemn anniversary April 26, 2011 at 7:00 p.m.(25 years to the day of the Chornobyl explosion) with the official opening of a photo essay titled Chornobyl: 25 Years Later, by Toronto photographer Olena Serbyn- Sullivan who travelled to the Chornobyl region with her father, retired professor and author Dr. Roman Serbyn and fellow photographer/videographer Mathew Merrett in late August 2009.
While in the Chornobyl area, Ms Serbyn-Sullivan and Dr. Serbyn visited a few of the remaining inhabited villages nearby and interviewed some of the approximately 130 elderly residents who continue to call this area home — refusing to to leave their villages when the evacuation was called 25 years ago. Chornobyl Remembered will see the Serbyns share their Chornobyl experiences Saturday, April 30, 2011at 6:00 p.m.

Both events take place at the Ukrainian Canadian Art Foundation, 2118-A Bloor Street West, 2nd Floor, Toronto. Photo essay Chornobyl: 25 Years Later runs April 26 through to May 4, 2011. Exhibition hours are Tuesday-Sunday, 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Saturday, April 30, 2011, 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
The CCCF also presents a Commemorative Concert honoring the victims of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster on Friday, May 6, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. The concert features Toronto-based choirs The Elmer Iseler Singers, The Gryphon Trio, Toronto Ukrainian Male Chamber Choir and Vesnivka Choir and takes place at the Plast-Huculak Community Centre, 516 The Kingsway (at Kipling Ave.), Etobicoke. Tickets are available at the CCCF (416-604-4611), UCU Credit Union and Buduchnist Credit Union. Admission is $35.00 for adults; $25.00 for students and seniors.

Children of Chornobyl Canadian Fund is a registered charitable organization established in 1990 to provide humanitarian aid to the victims of the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear disaster. Today CCCF sponsors a variety of projects to improve health care and the general well-being of disadvantaged and ill children in Ukraine.

For more information contact: Nadia Zastavna Children of Chornobyl Canadian Fund 416-604-4611
email: cccf@bellnet.ca